This
past week saw an exchange of letters in TODAY newspaper concerning the role of
meat production in environmental destruction. Letter (1) (Mon, 23 Oct) is from
VSS president, George Jacobs. Letter (2) (Wed, 25 Oct), by Yuen Xiang Hao, attempts to refute some of the points in George’s
letter. Letter (3) is a reply from VSS Exco member Lai
Nam Khim, published Sat, 28 Oct.
Letters (4) and (5) have yet to be published. They were written by Dr Shawn
Lum, a science lecturer at NIE and VP of Nature Society (
Singapore ) and George,
respectively. VSS appreciates Yuen Xiang Hao’s willingness to exchange
ideas on this important topic. Note:
the headlines are by TODAY, not the letter writers.

makes many valid
points. To clear the haze problem, people throughout the region need to adopt a
more cooperative attitude towards nature and our neighbours.

In addition to
threatening our health and our economy, the forest fires polluting

our air pose yet
another risk: They contribute greatly to the worldwide problem of

global warming, as the
fires emit greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Global warming is fast
reaching a tipping point. This issue is brought home by a powerful documentary
arriving in Singapore
theatres this week: An
Inconvenient Truth. The film’s title comes
from the fact that if we are serious about global warming, we will need to do
some things that are inconvenient, such as reduce our use of fossil fuels.

Another truth that may
be inconvenient is that meat production is a very inefficient

use of our resources. We
have to feed at least 5kg of food to our fellow animals to obtain just 1kg of meat
from their bodies. Meat production’s huge waste of food, water, and fuel
worsens global warming. For example, the inefficiency of meat means that much
more land must be cleared to grow the food that we feed to those that we later
eat.

Furthermore, the solid,
liquid, and gaseous excretions of these fellow animals are much greater than
all such waste we humans create. Some of the animals’ waste contains methane
— a greenhouse gas that is 20 times more powerful than carbon dioxide. Fortunately,
reducing our meat consumption, as suggested in the website for An Inconvenient Truth —
www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/whatyoucando/index4.html

— is not really
that inconvenient.

Singapore
is blessed with a large supply of readily available and affordable vegetarian food
at supermarkets, food courts and restaurants. Indeed, even most restaurants
that specialise in meat also offer tasty vegetarian options.

Letter (2) Meat-eaters
are not the culprits

IN “WHAT meat-eaters,
haze have in common” (Oct 23), Mr George Jacobs raises the following
objections to eating meat: 1. Meat is inefficient. 2. Meat causes global
warming, as meat animals produce methane. Let’s take point 2 first. While
it is true that cows produce methane, ice-core studies show that the rise in
atmospheric methane began to climb steadily not after the wholesale cultivation
of cows,

but after the
large-scale cultivation of rice. A brief visit to a rice field will confirm the
presence of methane and hydrogen sulphide, as a padi field is in effect a cultivated swamp.

As for point 1, while
it’s true that eating cows is less efficient than eating corn, as cows
“waste” a lot of energy, cows are not necessarily fed on corn. We
feed animals on food that we humans cannot eat, so unless one believes we could
replace the

grass in Dutch meadows
or alpine slopes with cornfields, meat animals are the only way to turn that energy
into energy useful to humans.

Letter (3) Getting to
the meat of pastoral land use

IN THE letter
“Meat-eaters are not the culprits” (Oct 25), Yuen Xiang Hao admits
that meat is a less efficient source of energy, but contends that the animals
are fed on “food that we humans cannot eat” and they graze on land
not otherwise suitable for cultivation. I am sure many believe likewise, but
this is far from the truth.

Grazing land is
typically cleared from forests. Forest lands
are not “unproductive” — they act as “lungs” of
the planet in absorbing carbon dioxide and are important for water retention.
Large-scale destruction of forest leads to environment problems such as soil
erosion and flooding.

The main reason that
there is abundance of meat at relatively affordable prices today is the
adoption of intensive farming practices. Cattle now spend minimal time grazing
the meadows, and some not at all. They are fattened with grains such as soy,
barley, sorghum, corn and oats before they are sent to the slaughterhouse. In
addition, poultry and animals like pigs do not feed on grass, but grain.

The fact is, today,
more grain is produced for animal feed than for human consumption. According to
the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation: “Feed use accounts
for nearly 60 per cent of total use of coarse grains.”

Meat production uses up
far more land and water to provide the same amount of energy that we could
otherwise consume directly from the plants. In addition, the amount of animal
waste produced in the process adds to the pollution problem.

Few people are aware of
the connection between meat consumption and the environment. There are many
resources in our local libraries and online, which the
environmentally-conscious reader can look into.

A simple change in our
diet — reducing meat consumption — can make a big difference to the
environment.

Letter (4)

In an age where information is so accessible and
with an education that is the envy of much of the world, I still find it
surprising how little many of us know about basic – but important –
issues. These include knowing about where our food comes from or the
causes of global warming, arguably the most serious environment threat facing
humankind today.

As a case in point I refer to the letter
“Meat-eaters are not the culprits” (Today, 25 October). Without
wishing to enter in the debate about the merits of giving up meat in
one’s diet, I can say that the writer of the letter either substituted
conjecture for fact, or perhaps simply did not have an adequate level of
environmental understanding. In either case, I feel that this is a cause for
concern with regards to public education, scholarship and general literacy.
Here are some well-documented, and readily accessible, facts:

Methane production by livestock is a significant
source of greenhouse gases, as is wet rice production. In 2003, livestock
“enteric fermentation” (i.e. methane produced in the digestive
systems of livestock and released as flatulence) accounted for slightly over
20% of the human-related methane produced in the
U.S.
(www.epa.gov/methane/sources.html). Meat consumption tends to increase along
with rising national average incomes, which implies that more
livestock-produced methane may well result in the future.

The
claim that “we feed animals on food that we humans cannot eat”
shows a misunderstanding of the industrial meat production. Across the world,
grain is grown and fed to cattle and other meat sources in ever-increasing
amounts. In 2002, Jeremy Rifkin wrote in The Guardian that “the worldwide
demand for feed grain continues to grow, as multinational corporations seek to
capitalise on the meat demands of affluent countries. Two-thirds of the
increases in grain production in the US
and Europe between 1950 and 1985, the boom
years in agriculture, went to provide feed grain.”
(www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,717044,00.html)

And
with respect to cows feeding in alpine meadows, research conducted by Swiss
ecologists at the University
of Basel demonstrated
that meadows fertilised by manure produced by a high density of grazing cows
led to significant declines in the diversity of flowering plants and
butterflies on those meadows.

There is no reason to think that we cannot have a
better understanding of how what we use and what we eat impacts the
environment. Only an informed consumer is empowered to make rational choices
that minimise our impact on our planet as well as benefit our health. I am
convinced Singapore
can lead the way in scientific and environmental literacy, given our excellent
education system and our accessibility to information. Maybe all we need is to
do is to make connections between that information and the world around us.

Letter (5)

In Meat-eaters are not
the culprits, YUEN XIANG HAO paints an out-of-date picture of how we get our
meat. Long gone are the days when the animals roamed freely, with chickens
strutting around the yard, pecking the ground in search of food.

Nowadays, most of the
meat we eat comes from huge factory farms where 1000s of our fellow animals are
locked indoors, deprived of anything resembling a natural life. For example,
the amount of space given to the average chicken is roughly equivalent to an A4
size piece of paper.

Plus, the chickens'
beaks are cut so they don't peck each other, and they are fed growth hormones
so they grow quickly. Then, they are sent for slaughter after less than 7 weeks
of life. All this crowding, cutting, hormone feeding, and rushing to slaughter
means that we have cheap chicken to eat.

Also, in many
countries, a significant proportion of the harvest of grains, soy beans and
other food crops goes to feed animals whom we later eat. For instance, the
Worldwatch Institute, estimates that in the
U.S. , 70% of the grain is fed to
animals. The same pattern is repeating itself in developing countries as meat
consumption rises. For instance, in
China , the share of grain fed to
livestock rose from 7 percent in 1960 to 20 percent in 1990.

Thus, we need to
realize that meat eating is not only cruel to our fellow animals but also very
harmful to our fragile environment, especially given the dangers of global warming.

On 26 Oct, VSS took
part in the first public screening of the documentaryAn Inconvenient Truthat
Golden Village ,
Plaza Sing. The documentary dramatically explains why Global Warming poses such
an imminent threat to life on earth.

VSS and other
organizations have joined together to promote the movie: http://www.eco-singapore.org/campaign/ait/seethetruth.php.
We feel there isan urgent need for all of us to understand the situation that we as a human race have created for this
planet. Although the consequences portrayed in the movie may or may not be
certain to occur in all their horror, there are definite and real consequences
of the way we mistreat the Earth.

Thus, there is a real need for us to awaken to the reality and make a shift in
the way we see the planet we all share, because all of life is connected. This
is a serious matter and pertinent to everyone, especially for our future generations.

The movie explains truths which may be inconvenient to us. At VSS, we are
elaborating on another inconvenient and important truth that the movie does not
highlight but which is well documented and should be made widely known: Our
growing meat consumption harms the environment; in particular, it worsens
Global Warming.

Yes,
it’s still only 2006, but we thought you’d like to hear the
exciting news that Jane Goodall, who has done so much to increase our knowledge
about and concern for our fellow animals, has agreed to speak at the
International Vegetarian Union’s 2008 Congress in
Dresden , Germany :
http://www.ivu.org/congress/2008/dresdentour.html.

On Sat, 18 Nov, 2pm-5pm, Kampung Senang’s Holistic
Lifestyle Centre, Blk 106 Aljunied Crescent #01-205, is hosting a 3hr class on
Macrobiotic Vegetarian Cooking, to be taught be Ms Doreen Chua. Price is
$60/members, $70/public, or $90 for a member and their caregiver, $100 for a non-member
and their caregiver.

Kampung Senang’s
Holistic Lifestyle Centre focuses on helping people maintain and regain health,
with a special emphasis on cancer patients. Among the many activities available
there are sea salt & mud bath
hydrotherapy, yoga/qigong, meditation,

Annalakshmi, one of
Singapore ’s best known Indian
veg restaurants, has a second location at
133 New Bridge Road , B1-02 Chinatown
Point, Podium A (use Chinatown MRT Exit E). They are open 7 days a week from
11am to 10pm for lunch, tea and dinner. Plus, they do catering and delivery.
Tel: 6339.9993

Their other location, which opened earlier this
year, is Annalakshmi Janatha, at 104
Amoy St. Tel: 6223.0809. Learn more about both
outlets online at annagov@...
or www.annalakshmi.com.sg.

Those people who consumed greater than 2.8 servings
of vegetables per day had significantly slower rates of mental decline than
those who ate fewer servings. Green leafy vegetables, in particular, were most
strongly associated with a decreased rate of mental decline. Fruit consumption
was not associated with cognitive change.